The rules of the game

It’s been 11 to 17 June 2017. It’s been a soldering-heavy week! In fact, I burnt my finger doing some soldering last night so typing is an annoyance.

But here all the same is shot 1 of the new short in all its goofy glory.

There he goes. A high-powered prototype never intended for mass production.

Here’s my draft “constitution” for this project:

The basics

The goal is to produce a comedic narrative animated short.

The narrative commences with a vaguely A-shaped creature (the AAAAA) going AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA while running.

The narrative shall be constructed of reactions and consequences of AAAAA running around going AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

AAAAA’s running/going AAAAAAAAAAAAA should not be explained or rationalised. It is not something mundane like a prickle in his foot. AAAAA does not stop running or going AAAAAAAAAAAAAA because it is AAAAA’s intent to do it as long as AAAAA can. Think of it as an endurance exercise that AAAAA is the champion of the universe at.

The project begins on the weekend of WA Day and ends on the Queens Birthday weekend (2 October).

The expected running time is.. not very long. Three minutes would probably be pushing it considering someone will be going AAAAAAAAAA although who knows what that could precipitate.

This project is intended as a learning experience and ultimately a stepping stone towards finishing larger more complex projects.

Production stipulations

The film is to be produced from start to finish in running order, aside from titles which are fine to put in during post-production.

Music and sound can also be retouched in post-production.

The narrative shall be entirely improvised during production:

Planning ahead before the current scene is completed is forbidden.

Planning ahead further than one scene is utterly forbidden.

Any attempt to brainstorm in advance how the movie ends before the actual final scene begins its planning phase will result in the instant forfeit and blacklist of that idea.

The blacklisted conclusions currently include a resolution where the AAAAA trips over, notices their group of followers, encourages them to continue after him like some sort of single file AAAAArmy.

Absolutely no 2D animatics – this is explicitly not that kind of project.

Limit the use of planning tools like storyboards except where they do double-duty as character and scenery design.

Going back and redoing footage is forbidden except to fix technical errors which cannot be fixed at composite time (animation glitches, etc).

Scenes should be simple enough to complete in two weeks alongside rest and relaxation, etc.

Time spent should be logged.

Late nights are strongly discouraged even on weekends.

Production pace can be slowed in case of mitigating factors like injury, fatigue, day job being extra-demanding, etc.

Scene guidelines

Scenes should contain no more than three shots – action, reaction, another reaction. Hopfrog‘s minimalism is a good guide here.

As per all narrative movies, scenes should continue on from one another logically. Scenes may refer to previous scenes.

Each new scene should introduce a new place, character and/or action.

Any single scene should present a single idea or gag. Scenes can carry ideas and gags from previous scenes but only secondary to the scene’s own gag.

Each scene should also contain a surprise.

The film will contain no dialogue or written material. Where words are expected to appear visually, e.g. the title of a book, a nonsense script should be substituted. Where dialogue would be expected, substitute lively gibberish or suitable sound effects.

Design and tone guidelines

Given that this is a sweet and merry little refuge, it’s fine for characters to disapprove of AAAAA but it’s not fine for them to get furiously angry or terribly sad or agonisingly hurt. The standard-issue supporting character is friendly and calm and approachable.

Sad characters are ok but cheer them up!

It’s fine for the humour to be a little bit naughty but not outright rude. Again, consult Hopfrog.

Characters/scenery should be unlikely in some way or another.

Keep the designs colourful and fun to look at, and don’t make them too detailed. Go easy on stuff like greebles and cracks.

No need to do everything in geo! Non-pixellated textures are fine but keep the surfaces simple.

At least one character has to have fur at some point.

Design-wise, sharp angles are fine this time but tend towards roundness. Try for a general stumpiness, stockiness and broadness in the proportions of the designs. Allow for some contrast too.

Technical guidelines

If Eevee gets production-ready, use Eevee. Otherwise, use Cycles.

Using DASYRAC for the sound and music is strongly encouraged. There is no explicit budget for extra Eurorack modules though.

Use of third party time-and-effort saving plug-ins (e.g. automatic rigging systems) and other resources is absolutely mandatory. Use them! They good!

That’s it for now, so thanks for reading and I hope to see you with something new next week!